It is your right to believe any nonsense you wish. Your belief in nonsense does not make it true.

If you ever bother to actually go to Israel you will notice that persons of all religious and ethnic backgrounds live and prosper in Israel. People of all religious and ethnic backgrounds are citizens of Israel and people of all religious and ethnic backgrounds are entitled to the same civil rights. There is no dhimi status in Israel.

The only "racists" in the middle east are the Arabs who insist that their lands be free of Jews.

The only "racist" ideology is that espoused by the Arabs who insist that all of the former Palestinian mandate lands are "Arab" lands.

I have read your posts in 3 threads now and I see a basic underlying flaw in your critiques. I'm a Zionist, as is my family and as are my friends. None of us demands that only Jews live in Israel. As such your assessment of a central tenet of zionism is inaccurate and the rest of your argument is, at best, suspect.

Those of us who actually live the ideology have more right to represent what we say and believe than you do.

Good post ayad. we're glad you're here, and that's official in my role as co-host.

Now I'm going to jump all over you... but do feel free to jump right back!!!

Ayad, a whole lot of us Americans who happen to be Christians, think Israel is one hell of a lot better than all the Arab countries put together, and most certainly the Palestinians. Many of us remember very well their dancing in the streets after 9/11.

For myself, Ayad, it's no contest. Israel is a modern, progressive, innovative, human rights respecting, democracy living in the midst of backward, theocratic-ally cursed, misogynist, stagnant states and cultures.

That's not very subtle, but then I tend not to be very subtle .

Having said that... again...your posts and contributions are very, very welcome and your point of view from Syria is valuable and appreciated, no matter how much some (like me) will argue with you.

Ayad, I'm not about to 'admit' any such thing as you claim, because it is false. It is misrepresenting Zionism, and it is a filthy lie.

My Zionism is that of Hadassah. Go look us up online, and you will see what it's about. There IS no 'discrimination' by Hadassah Zionists: whoever has been telling you such things is lying.

The question I have for you is, why are you so eager to believe the lies?

PS: Allow me to extend a heartfelt welcome to you, Ayad. I hold hope that if we can begin to talk to one another, that somehow it may help to promote peace in your corner of the world. And in ours : ))

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch sent a joint letter to the Knesset, Israel's parliament, urging members to reject the bill. "The draft law barring family reunification for Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens is profoundly discriminatory," Amnesty said in a statement. "A law permitting such blatant racial discrimination, on grounds of ethnicity or nationality, would clearly violate international human rights law and treaties which Israel has ratified and pledged to uphold." B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organisation, joined in the criticism of the law. Yael Stein, a spokesman, said: "This is a racist law that decides who can live here according to racist criteria."

"This bill blatantly discriminates against Israelis of Palestinian origin and their Palestinian spouses," said Hanny Megally of Human Rights Watch. "It's scandalous that the Government has presented this bill, and it's shocking that the Knesset is rushing it through."

Nice OLD quote from a propaganda site, Dos. It's a blog, isn't it? If you read elsewhere on it, you can see the author pimping the Big Lie of a 'massacre' at Jenin.... So, 6.5 years later, what's happened with that? Care to find us some follow-up?

So, what's the article actually saying? That the Knesset Is trying to pass a bad law, and that people are challenging it and it may be overturned by the court. Move on folks, nothing to see here...except democracy operating as it should. And HRW showing its recent bias (there've been threads on that topic).

You DO know, don't you, Dos, that that's how democracies operate? That the US at one time had laws in place which effectively prevented any non-Christian member ELECTED to Congress from being sworn in and seated? And after about a century, enough people noticed the idiocy and had it corrected....

Again, Dos - Thanks for showing us that, although some MK's may not agree, the Israeli government overall is NOT about to be 'racist'/'religionist'/'xenophobic'/'exclusivist'/ in its operation as a Zionist state - because that would be against the will of the Israeli people, and against its Constitution.

What is ACTUALLY going on is that some right-wingers are pushing for a bad law - and people left of there are pushing back *through organizations which are also Zionist and part of Israeli society* and through Constitutionally appropriate means.

It's the give-and-take of a vibrant democracy. Exactly the opposite of what every single anti-Israel's-existance group is all about.

"How about an ideology that calls for the liberation of Jews under their own rule?

Yes but that's not Zionism."

Sorry Charlie. Zionism is the ideology which calls for the liberation of Jews under their own rule in their homeland (which happens to be eretz Israel, not Uganda, or Madagascar, or any where else you might think)